What's New: Developer Tools (2024 release wave 1)

Overview

The session covers what changed for AL developers and AppSource publishers in 2024 release wave 1. Developer topics include extension objects in the same app as base objects (runtime 13 and above), a small AL tool for pipelines with three methods, tooltips on tables, secret text, a file upload action, Copilot prompting features, cookie support in the HTTP client, number sequence restart and range methods, and new obsolete states for moving objects between apps. The debugger was upgraded, and partners can now debug the system application.

The AppSource part describes the preview state, preview keys and audience, install via link, version rules, sandbox-only limits, telemetry and the changed hotfix validation. It also shows the new Microsoft AppSource apps list page, which replaces the deprecated embedded experience, and mentions page scripting as a preview.

Key points

• Extension objects (tables, pages, reports, enums, permission sets) can live in the same app as the base objects; enabled by default when targeting runtime 13, and AppSource cop checking is needed to prevent breaking changes.
• The AL tool ships with the compiler and has three methods, including extracting app manifests, creating symbol packages and getting the latest supported AL runtime versions. .NET 4.8 was removed from the binaries to ease pipeline use.
• New obsolete states (pending move, moved) with moved from / moved to properties simplify refactoring between extensions. They are limited to a select set of applications for now and are used for the number series module moved to business foundation.
• The upgraded AL debugger cannot debug services running older Business Central versions; install an older AL extension version for those. System application breakpoints now work, but non-debuggable and secure text areas stay protected.
• AppSource preview state: validated apps go to preview, installed in sandboxes only via a link with tenant ID, app ID and preview key. The preview version must be higher than the latest public version, and breaking changes between previews are allowed.
• Hotfixes are now validated against the latest AppSource app version, so partners can backport features if there are no breaking changes. Preview support and this change were backported to 2023 release wave 2.
• The embedded AppSource experience is deprecated; the Microsoft AppSource apps list page adds search, filter, analysis mode and Copilot queries. Only free or transact-plan apps install directly.

Features

AL objects mentioned

As heard in the captions. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.

• table “number series line” at 7:30
• table “number serious line obsolete” at 7:30
• other “number series module” at 14:00
• page “Microsoft appsource apps” at 31:24

Not found in BC28-30: table “number series line”, table “number serious line obsolete”, page “Microsoft appsource apps”.

Quotes

• 1:37 “it’s all about the ability to have extension objects in the same app as the base objects”
• 4:14 “one app with both a table and multiple table extensions will still only create one table in SQL layer which means that there are”
• 5:15 “it is enabled by default when targeting runtime 13 which is the current release”
• 8:03 “it is shipping together with the V6 right next to your favorite compiler but don’t get too excited because it’s it is a small”
• 10:18 “we now have the ability to add tool tips to tables and you can now reuse tool tips across all your pages”
• 13:26 “you can now set cookies on requests and read them from responses and you can even automatically use the response cookies for the lifetime”
• 13:44 “the range method allows you now to get a whole range in a single database call enabling for much more performant bulk operations”
• 14:20 “using this method we do not consider it a breaking change and if the consumer already have the move table in scope then”
• 14:41 “the functionality is currently limited to a select set of applications but we intend to open up for everyone to use this in the”
• 15:01 “we have been upgrading the debugger in the vs code Al language extension this means we no longer can support debugging on Services running”
• 15:41 “note though that we are still respecting the non debuggable and the secure text uh that will limit debugging in protected areas of the”
• 17:03 “we now support the appsource preview State uh which all submitted apps automatically go to when passing validation”
• 20:39 “it’s not possible to install a version of an app that is lower uh than the latest publicly uh available version of that app”
• 27:06 “we changed the validation so that we now do validate against the latest appsource app version”
• 27:27 “Partners can Now backport features and include them in the hotfix version if there are no breaking changes to the latest version”
• 29:05 “we have uh decided to replace the old embed experience with a new experience that we call uh Microsoft appsource apps and this is”
• 29:25 “this list provides a much stronger uh capability to search and filter than before”
• 33:51 “we have a super exciting a new tool called page scripting that allows customers and Consultants to easily uh record and play user acceptance”
• 34:11 “this is something that we release as a preview in 2024 release way 1”

Disclaimers in the video

• 9:21 other: we have removed the net 4.8 from the binaries which made it hard to use in a um in Pipelines
• 14:20 subject-to-change: the functionality is currently limited to a select set of applications but we intend to open up for everyone to use this in the future
• 14:41 subject-to-change: The functionality is currently limited to a select set of applications but we intend to open up for everyone to use this in the future
• 18:03 subject-to-change: we support sandbox environments um I think I made a said production just before to test it out but we actually only support uh production uh for now
• 18:20 preview: the preview support is uh something that we actually uh shipped in the 203 release or 20 2023 release wave uh 2 uh minor um so we kind of you know backported it
• 28:44 not-in-this-release: this embedded appsource experience has been deprecated by the appsource team from uh basically now April 2024
• 34:11 preview: this is something that we release as a preview in 2024 release way 1

Presenters (as heard): Peter, Espen, Stefan, Kurt, Kenny.